JOHN Swinney told a BBC presenter “don’t you worry about the money” as he hit back at a question on SNP finances.
Speaking to the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme, the First Minister said all the SNP’s candidates were in place and that the manifesto is “well-advanced”.
We told on Wednesday how Swinney accused Downing Street of “contempt” for Scots with the date of the election – July 4 – as it is the week after summer school holidays start.
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Speaking to the BBC’s Laura Maxwell, Swinney was asked: “You managed to avoid the expense of a leadership campaign, but in terms of an election campaign they often cost upwards of what £1 million, how are you going to pay for that?”
The First Minister (below) replied to say the SNP would “obviously have to raise money from our supporters” to ensure a “well-funded election campaign”.
When Maxwell put it to Swinney that campaigning had already started, he replied: “Well exactly and we’ll be getting on with that and that’s what election campaigns are about.
“You roll your sleeves up and you get on and you do it. You drive that and I lead it from the front and that’s exactly what I’m going to be doing.”
The host then told Swinney the most recent figures she had seen “suggest the SNP’s made a loss of £800,000 and has another £200,000-odd of liabilities, so you’re already down at what £1 million?”
Swinney replied: “Listen Laura don’t you worry about the money, we’ll find the money to fight the election campaign, we’ll get on with that.
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“We’ve got well-funded campaigns around the country and we’ll be raising money to make sure we fight a strong and enthusiastic election campaign which is about the fact that Scotland’s future has been damaged by decisions taken in Westminster.”
Debate on independence
The conversation then turned to Scottish independence, which Swinney said was the only way to solve issues imposed by Westminster.
The First Minister said the cost of living crisis was a result of decisions taken by the UK Government, and made reference to the disastrous mini-budget of Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng.
Asked if it was “still page one, line one on the manifesto,” Swinney said: “Well of course it is because it’s the answer to all of those issues, it’s the answer to austerity, it’s the answer to the cost of living crisis, it’s the answer to Brexit.
“Independence is the way for Scotland to get over these errors and damaging decisions that have been inflicted upon us by Westminster.
“So of course they’re interlinked, of course they’ll be central to our election campaign because that’s the way in which we can chart a different course to the damage inflicted by Westminster.”
The First Minister was then asked about his independence strategy having previously confirmed this would remain the same as Humza Yousaf’s.
It involves the SNP winning the majority of Scottish seats at the General Election and taking that as a basis for independence support, which they said would take to the UK Government to begin negotiations on how to give that “democratic effect”.
When it was put to Swinney that Labour and the Conservatives would refuse to negotiate, he said: “Well that’s not a very democratic point of view is it? That’s ignoring the preference of the voters.
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“My point is that let’s not just skip past the democratic outrage that the people of Scotland are having their views ignored by Westminster.
“That is not an appropriate way for a democracy to behave so what I want to make sure is that the SNP gets the requisite support we need to take that argument to the UK Government and to pursue Scotland’s interests.
“That’s what I’m interested in doing, we’ll only be able to do that if the SNP gets a big vote and wins a large number of seats in this election so that’s what I’m going to be concentrating on.”
Swinney said the “only way Scotland advances is when people vote SNP”.
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